A Besieged Bank, and Its Hometown, Look Inward


By LOUISE STORY
Published: March 12, 2009
New York Times


CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Each workday, when the closing bell sounds on Wall Street, the mayor here in the Wall Street of the South takes stock of this city’s fortunes.

It is not hard. If it was a good day for Bank of America, whose headquarters towers over this city and its collective psyche, then it was a good day for the people in Charlotte. But if it was a bad one — and there have been too many of those lately — a bit more local pride and prosperity slip away.

Like many people here, the mayor, Patrick McCrory, is flabbergasted by the startling fall of Bank of America and the city’s other banking giant, the Wachovia Corporation. One out of every 10 people here works for one of the banks. Many more have staked retirements and savings on them in the stock market.

But Wachovia, a Carolina fixture since 1879, fell into the clutches of a big California bank last year. Now Bank of America too faces an uncertain future, despite two multibillion-dollar rescues from Washington. Bank of America’s share price — in a sense, a proxy for Charlotte’s — has plunged nearly 86 percent in 12 months.

Mr. McCrory has one word for it: “Unbelievable.â€